“There are some very successful projects out there, so cities need to learn from one another.”

Péter Szaló and the Budapest Communiqué

Over the years and from government to government employees at the Hungarian ministries have changed, except for one person. A civil servant as of 1990, Péter Szaló, has built up his years of experience and thus knows most ins and outs of Hungarian politics. Currently he is very much involved with the EU Hungarian Presidency and has had an active role in formulating the Budapest Communiqué, a document which focuses on climate and demographic challenges and is aimed at European cites. “The reason for Hungary’s demographic problem is because of our ageing population. Aside from this, skilled and talented people are moving from less developed to more developed regions, the so called brain drain. We have to think about what we can do at local level, like how to focus on families by implementing better rules and regulations for working parents, and how to help elderly people. Sometimes the solution to be implemented in order to help for example elderly people is quite simple. People want to remain in their houses but elderly people living on the 4th floor of an apartment building cannot climb up the stairs anymore, while young people on the bottom floor would not mind to move to another apartment in the building. A simple strategy would be to allow these tenants to switch apartments quickly and easily. This requires the local government to act promptly to aid inhabitants in this process and it doesn’t cost anyone money.”

The Budapest Communiqué and other European documents

“I have to highlight the importance of the Leipzig Charter adopted in 2007 in Leipzig, Germany, under the German EU Presidency. This charter is the key document in urban development.” Other presidencies have implemented ideas from the charter in practice. Like when Portugal was EU President they adopted the charter in an action program and the French developed a tool, the Reference Framework, on how to implement the charter into urban development strategies. Under the Spanish Presidency the Declaration of Toledo was signed in which the Spanish continued the work set out in the Leipzig Charter amongst others. “There are more documents similar to the Budapest Communiqué which were implemented during other EU Presidencies. We focus on demographic changes and climate challenges on urban environment and population. We organized a high level conference on this topic and we published 2 books; a handbook to local authorities of the EU and another more practical book on how to combat climate change, how to prevent future climate issues, what are the local tools etc. We want to summarize the messages for local authorities, to national governments, to the EU Commission and  Parliament because multilevel governance is needed to reach our goals. We have to harmonize the local and community initiatives. Aside from this we wanted to choose current issues which affect all European cities and which are in line with the EU 2020 goals. That’s how we came with the idea to focus on demographic change and climate challenges.”

We want to provoke a discussion on the integration issue

Just a few years ago there was a big problem in the outskirts of Paris. Mainly immigrant groups were living in this area where the housing was not up to standard, there was a high level of unemployment and other social problems. “Nobody really wanted to talk about the issue but at some point we have to. That’s why this point is taken up in the Communiqué. There are EU and national solutions for many of these problems but the issues of integration exist on local level and will continue to do so in the future. So it is important for local governments to figure out what to do, otherwise the problem does not get solved. Therefore we focus for example on housing issues in integrated urban strategies of European cities. We urge local authorities to do this actively in their strategies so that residents will be integrated better into their cities and so that there is more social inclusion for everyone.”

Cities should learn from one another

“I think the most effective tool is the integrated urban development policy to handle economic, social and environmental issues. Because of the economic crisis, we all have to think creatively and use the same scheme of projects to solve problems within our cities.” For example Stockholm has an excellent project on waste collection in the city. This project is aimed at a cleaner and better environment but it also creates more job opportunity. “Other cities should try to implement similar projects instead of trying all kinds of new projects. When a project works in one city it can easily be a success in another as well. This means that cities have to work with each other and learn from each other. The integrated urban development strategy thus should be based on the partnership principle. This means that local stakeholders, national government, urban and rural persons are all involved in the strategy so that they participate in projects. Only then can the project be a success.”

Focus on different characteristics to combat demographic challenges

Cities are the central point for economic and social activity. Competitiveness plays a big role in cities. Therefore if  national governments would like to promote competitiveness within the country they have to promote local action plans. This could make a difference in demographic challenges because instead of most residents concentrating on one major city, more cities can be made attractive for residents and thus people will be spread around the country resulting in better distribution of locals throughout the country. Major cities can focus on education and work opportunity whereas small municipalities can focus on housing, family values and environment. Different characteristics attract different people so it is key that we highlight the advantages in each city (small and large) so that people can choose where the want to live.

Look back at Hungarian EU Presidency

We are very satisfied with what we have accomplished in the field of urban development. For example in Hungary we have 320 cities of which 260 prepared an integrated urban strategy. This is a real success. The urban rehabilitation programs of the cities were based on the integrated urban policies as well. Hungarian cities changed their image on how to tackle problems having to do with the environment and how to work together with local and national governments. So definite changes have been made within our country. Therefore we would like people to think back on this success, the Communiqué and its results as well as the practical notes which we have given in order to show people what kind of work has been done within demographic and climate issues and how we can continue this work in the future.

EUKN, Elizabeth Winkel